Free of pressure, expectations, Roncalli softball looking to make a name for itself

INDIANAPOLIS — Emma Fegan was feeling the pressure. One of Roncalli's five seniors and few returners with significant varsity experience, the Thomas More commit was determined to do anything and everything she could to help the Royals maintain the impossibly high standard established by the Class of 2023.

A few games into the season — and following conversations with a few teammates, both current and former — Fegan realized she had to slow things down. She was in her head and needed to get back to being herself and just playing softball.

"I felt that pressure at the beginning of the season, but now I don't," Fegan said Monday night. "I'm just here to ball out and have fun. There's nothing to lose."

Fegan is emblematic of Roncalli's spring-long evolution entering Tuesday's regional championship vs. Avon.

External expectations were lowered for the Royals after they graduated eight key seniors from their 4A runner-up team, so there wasn't much pressure at the outset, Addison Poe observed. They played together as a team at the outset, she said, and success soon followed with a 17-1 start that included victories over Center Grove, New Palestine, Tecumseh and Carmel.

But with that success, came self-ascribed expectations. If they were good enough to beat those teams, then the pressure was on to keep it going, Poe said.

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It wasn't until a late-season skid, a stretch of four losses in five games — first three by a combined score of 30-6 — that suggested this team may be vulnerable entering sectionals that the Royals were able to unburden themselves and rediscover their way.

"You learn from losses and that is what we needed," sophomore Elise Baker said.

Following a 17-15 setback to Perry Meridian last Monday — RHS' first in the series since 2014 — a players-only meeting was called. They sat together for 40 minutes after practice and did a hard reset. It's a game, they reminded one another, and they needed to return focus to playing for each other, same as they did at the beginning of the year.

"After that 'come to Jesus moment,' we learned that we don't need to make adjustments physically, but mentally," Fegan said. "We want to do it for each other and that's the most important thing. It's all about having fun and doing whatever we can to be with our girls."

"That's what really carried us," Poe added.

Unlike recent iterations, the 2024 Royals don't have an established slugger (or two…or three) at the heart of their lineup. That's not to say they're completely devoid of power — Natalie Summers has six homers; Bennie Leffler and Fegan both have five — but the lineup is built to put the ball in play and manufacture runs by moving station-to-station on the basepaths.

To wit, Roncalli recorded 11 hits and had eight players reach base in Monday's Class 4A Sectional 11 quarterfinal vs. Franklin Central. For the season, over 85% of its hits have been either singles or doubles, with Carly Keller, Summers, Baker, Fegan and Poe all collecting 30-plus hits, while Sarah Hofmann and Leffler are both over 20.

The pitching staff has formed its own identity, too, with Avery Clark (12-4, 3.04 ERA, 84 strikeouts), Poe (5-1, 2.29 ERA, 44 strikeouts) and Baker (4-0, 2.16 ERA, 40 strikeouts) stepping in for the irreplaceable Keagan Rothrock.

Roncalli rebounded from its 1-4 stretch with wins over Living Water Homeschool and Covenant Christian, returned to form with an intense 6-3 triumph over the Flashes, then cruised to a fourth consecutive sectional crown with mercy-rule wins Perry Meridian and Southport.

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As for the pressure?

"After we had that rough patch, the pressure is completely off," Baker said. "We set the record straight. We're a new team and now we're here to make a name for ourselves."

Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Roncalli High School softball makes name for itself